Wood-Thermoplastic Composites Manufactured Using Beetle-Killed Spruce From Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

摘要

Over the last 20 years the spruce bark-beetle outbreak has infested an estimated 0.6 million ha (1.5 million acres) of spruce trees within Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Of these acres 95% mortality is common and accounts for an estimated timber lose of 2 billion board feet. As the bark-beetle infestation continues to spread and trees already dead continue to deteriorate, traditional wood products no longer become a viable option. New uses and products are needed to make logging viable and one possible product is wood-thermoplastic composites (WPC) that use wood flour as a feedstock and are less sensitive to the integrity of the solid wood source. The objective of this project was to characterize the mechanical properties of the solid wood source based on the three deterioration levels; Live, Partially Deteriorated, and Highly Deteriorated and to evaluate the feasibility of manufacturing WPC using wood flour from the three deterioration levels. Based on small clear specimen testing; site location, tree height location and deterioration level was evaluated and statistically differed. All but deterioration level was combined and used to develop a mixture model for manufacturing of WPC.